Gosford Park (2001)
Directed by Robert Altman
In 1930s England, a group of pretentious rich and famous gather together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
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He has created a parody of the traditional drawing-room murder mysteries in the Agatha Christie vein and combined it with a lusty, more subversive kind of "Upstairs Downstairs," along with hints of the classic Jean Renoir comedy "The Rules of the Game."
Echoing Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game, Gosford Park concerns a weekend shooting party for the elite.
There's a murder and obsequious, dull-witted Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry) investigates, tiptoeing around his suspects like a toady, but the mystery spoof is merely a structure for Altman's empathetic take on Jean Renoir's biting, bitter satire "The Rules of the Game."
"Gosford Park" is "The Rules of the Game" reimagined as an English murder mystery.
This establishes the social structure for visitors who will be under the domain of Head butler Jennings (Alan Bates, "An Unmarried Woman").
Among the guests are Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam), a film star and composer; Morris Weisman (Bob Balaban), a Hollywood movie producer researching upper class foibles for his next picture, Charlie Chan in London; his valet Henry (Ryan Phillippe); Lady Sylvia's snobbish aunt Constance (Maggie Smith); Lady Sylvia's younger sister Louisa (Geraldine Somerville) and her uppity husband Raymond (Charles Dance); and Lieutenant Commander Anthony Meredith (Tom Hollander), who is pressing Sir William to work with him on a financial deal.
Head housekeeper Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren, "Greenfingers") explains to visiting American valet Henry Denton (Ryan Phillipe, "The Way of the Gun") that he will be referred to by the other servants with the name of his employer, Mr. Weissman (Bob Balaban, "The Majestic"), a film producer researching country house parties for his upcoming "Charlie Chan in London."
The lord and lady's weekend guests include Constance (Maggie Smith), a penniless countess who's rich in wit; Lt. Commander Anthony Meredith (Tom Hollander) and his wife (Natasha Wightman), broke and anxious; matinee idol Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam); American movie producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban), who is using the occasion as an opportunity to do research for his upcoming "Charlie Chan in London"; and unemployed blackmailer Freddie Nesbitt (James Wilby), who has some dirt on the McCordle's daughter Isobel (Camilla Rutherford).
In addition, the eventual disclosure of the murderer's identity and reasons for the crime aren't anything particularly amazing or noteworthy, while the introduction of Stephen Fry ("A Civil Action," "Wilde") as a buffoonish, Clouseau-type inspector feels out of place.
When his corpse is discovered later in his study, comically incompetent Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry, "Wilde") arrives and seals off the house.
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His output may have been been hit or miss these last few years - the last thing he had resembling a hit was "The Player" in 1992, and he hasn't even found much critical favor since 1993's "Short Cuts" - but it just won't do to take Altman for granted.
But just when Tinseltown was ready to write off the unconventional, often-arrogant Altman, he returned with the ruthless satire of Hollywood, "The Player," and later "Short Cuts," a series of vignettes based on Raymond Carver's short stories.
He's made mincemeat out of most other movie genres since day one: the musical (Popeye), the detective film (The Long Goodbye), the war film (M*A*S*H), the western (McCabe and Mrs. Miller), the sci-fi film (Quintet) as well as skewering politics with his cable-TV series Tanner '88 and Hollywood with The Player.
As in The Player and Ready to Wear, Altman mercilessly satirizes a whole culture and way of life, along the way finding not a single nice thing to say about anyone or anything involved.
It seems obvious that the hypocrisies and nastiness of Hollywood, which Altman skewered in "The Player," are less worthy of examination than British class struggle and much less interesting than selling his own movie tickets, which he proceeds to do for the rest of "Gosford Park"'s length.
Surprise of surprises, the spot-on direction is by 40-year veteran Robert Altman, the distinctive and distinctly American filmmaker responsible for Nashville, M*A*S*H and The Player.
With a splendid and largely British cast headed up by Michael Gambon, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, and Jeremy Northam (as Novello), it's hard to single out any one individual performance but Maggie Smith (as the sniping Countess of Trentham), "Croupier"'s Clive Owen (as a manservant with a difficult past), Helen Mirren (as Mrs. Wilson the head housekeeper), and Ryan Philippe (sporting a convincing Scottish brogue) are all worthy of attention.
As Lady Sylvia takes lascivious interest in visiting valet Denton, staid Mrs. Wilson makes note of withdrawn visiting valet Parks (Clive Owen, "Croupier") and Sir William dips into his own household staff, the household bustles and snobbery reigns.
Young Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting) plays the key role of Maggie Smith's maid.
The gifted but unobtrusive Macdonald ( "Trainspotting," "Two Family House" ) makes an ideal tour guide for all this.
Maggie Smith, kicking thespian ass as the insufferable Countess of Trentham, is proferred umbrellas, open doors and fawning bows, while her servant Mary, played by "Trainspotting"'s Kelly MacDonald, is sent around the back door in the rain and addressed by her master's name instead of her own.
If there is a protagonist, it is Kelly MacDonald, whom you may remember was prominently featured in the Trainspotting poster and also appeared briefly in the film itself (as Ewan McGregor's underage love interest).
Maggie Smith and Kelly MacDonald are wonderful as a countess-and-maid team, with Smith, like a schoolgirl draped in matronly jewels and furs, begging the fresh-faced MacDonald (a fine, sweetly unconventional actress, also seen in "Trainspotting" and "Two Family House") for the latest gossip among the servants.
Young Mary Maceachram (Kelly Macdonald, "Trainspotting"), new maid to Constance, Countess of Trentham (Maggie Smith, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone") largely acts as the audience's portal to two distinctly different, yet equally socially structured, worlds.
Then there's Emily Watson ("Trixie," "Hilary and Jackie") in another solid performance as the head housemaid with a secret, Michael Gambon ("Charlotte Gray," "The Insider") as the surly lord of the manor, and Helen Mirren ("Teaching Mrs. Tingle," 'The Madness of King George") as the head housekeeper.
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Altman is renowned for assembling top-notch ensemble casts (Short Cuts, Nashville, A Wedding, H.E.A.L.T.H, etc) and Gosford Park sits comfortably alongside his best work.
After a flurry of masterpieces in the early '70s, the Altman of the late '70s and '80s often let his counterculture ire get the best of him, taking too-easy potshots at the characters in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976), A Wedding (1978), H.E.A.L.T.H. (1979), and many other films.
When working with lesser scripts that paraded the quirkiness of characters in place of personality (think A Wedding and Health, all that was left was color and cleverness.
Altman is working with an almost entirely new crew here, many culled appropriately enough from Britain: cinematographer Andrew Dunn (The Madness of King George), composer Patrick Doyle (Sense and Sensibility, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet), and Merchant-Ivory costume designer Jenny Beavan, along with Ang Lee's regular editor Tim Squyres, join Robert's longtime production designer (and son) Stephen Altman to sculpt a film in different key.